WORTH NOTING ON TV

ByAlan BunceJune 23, 1995

* SUNDAY

Lost Civilizations (NBC, 7-8 p.m.): A look at the 3,500-year history of Egypt launches this 10-part series about ancient cultures.

Special effects, re-stagings, and other devices explore the belief that death was the beginning of the long voyage of immortality. The program dramatizes the preparation of King Ramses' body for that voyage. It also depicts the less reverent attitude of tomb-robbers over the centuries, and their devastating effects on the sacred sites.

A Day With (Fox, 8-9 p.m.): Coverage of celebrities is a commonplace on TV these days, but how about this for a different spin: Let the subjects themselves produce features about themselves - and in the bargain let them do it without a busybody "host" getting into the act.

The result is a look at celebrities not the way the media usually picture them, or as they actually are, but as they personally choose to be seen.

The subjects, in this case, are film director Ron Howard and Oscar-winning film actor Tom Hanks, model Ellie MacPherson, TV star Matthew Perry, and basketball's Dennis Rodman. Viewers see Howard and Hanks, for instance, completing their upcoming feature film "Apollo 13," and eavesdrop as Howard has a breakfast meeting with his partner Brian Grazer.

Biography (A&amp;E, 8-9 p.m.): "Pocahontas: Ambassador of the New World" is not designed to spoil the fun of anyone wanting to see Disney's recently released animated feature "Pocahontas," with its reputedly romanticized image of the native American girl.

But the documentary program does offer a more historically complete profile of a woman who became a negotiator with the colonists and an ambassador for her people at the court of England's King James.

She died in London while there with her young son and husband - who was not, incidentally, the man she saved as a young girl, John Smith. She had been falsely told Smith was dead.